Conservatives deal with facts and reach conclusions; liberals have conclusions and sell them as facts.

Is it unseemly for an elected official to host a weekly chat TV show?

Everything flows from the top. I’m not saying that Obama encouraged his advance Security Service team to have riotous orgies, but I’m also not surprised that a corrupt administration ends up having corrupt employees. A leader’s ethos will always trickle down.

Speaking of which, I see a continuum between Michelle Obama sully the White House by hosting a game show in the East Room and the fact that California’s Lt. Governor (which is, after all, an elected position) is going to host a chat show on Gore’s soon-to-be defunct CurrentTV. (And no, I can’t prove that it will be defunct; it’s just that it has an Air America stench floating above it.)

California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom is getting a new platform for sharing his made-in-San Francisco values — a cable television talk show.

Current TV, the liberal-leaning cable channel co-founded by former Vice President Al Gore, announced Wednesday that it had retained the telegenic lieutenant governor to host a weekly hour-long program during which he will chat up “notables from Silicon Valley, Hollywood and beyond.”

I’m sure that both Current TV and Newsome’s own people have checked the law carefully to make sure he isn’t violating any rules and regulations by tearing himself away from his political obligations, slender though they may be, in order to have his Oprah moments. Nevertheless, there is something unseemly about an elected official moonlighting as a TV chat show host.

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Jerry Springer– yes, that Jerry Springer– was mayor of Cincinnati. That’s all I have to contribute.

heather

Yes, it is unseemly. I also think it is unseemly for elected leaders to appear as guests on talk shows, and especially to announce candidacy in such a forum.
And sometimes I think I am really an 85 year old in a 39 year old body.

MacG

Seemsa little like Atate run media, no?

Just the other day Gavs was complaining that he did not have enough to do. Or was that his position is being under utilized and should be used to its full potential or eliminate it. May be hosting State Media is his solution to his current humiliating position.

MacG

That would be State run media…

SADIE

Unseemly and tacky to all of the above.

Charles Martel

I cracked up at the “Silicon Valley, Hollywood and beyond” line. Let me translate:

Silicon Valley = 1.) Big potential campaign money source and 2.) the last leftist delusion, which is that California has one golden goose remaining, and Silicon Valley is it. (The only trouble is that Newsom’s comrades are quietly pushing Silicon Valley’s production and warehouses out of state via oppressive taxes and fees.)

Hollywood = Newsom is the exception to the old saying that Washington, DC is where people who are too ugly to make it in Hollywood go to become celebrities. His good looks make him that rare politician who can expect to attract Hollywood celebrities simply because good-looking people like to hang out together. Nothing really wrong with that, except that there will be absolutely no intellectual firepower on either side of the coffee table. The inclusion of Hollywood also betrays the left’s fascination with celebrity, and the belief that most other people are similarly taken by it—NOT.

And beyond = The limits of the California liberal imagination. Is there really anything beyond Silicon Valley and Hollywood? Probably not, since the genius who wrote the press release couldn’t come up with even one example.

jj

That’s the pitch? This guy, who is essentially a nobody to the rest of the world outside San Francisco – and probably 70% of SF residents wouldn’t know him if they fell over him on the street, either – is going to: “chat up notables from Silicon Valley, Hollywood, and beyond?” I don’t think I ever knew anybody who’d buy that. A nobody having a fascinating conversation with Bill Gates? Wow – there’s an audience-grabber! And as far as “Hollywood and beyond” is concerned we already have a bunch of guys who do that, led by Leno and Letterman. Thanks for the pitch, it sucked, we’ll pass.

Old Buckeye

Like heather, I think it’s unseemly as well as odd to see elected officials, the wife of the president, etc., on Letterman, Oprah, and the like. What happened to the decorum of the office where your appearances were tied to duties that were “official” and “statesmanlike?” I think it started with Clinton where being in the public eye–no matter what the forum, no matter what kind of light it sheds on you–became the norm. Remember him and the saxophone playing? Not really the image I have of a president. I guess Putin is the same way. It cheapens to office in my estimation. I am so hoping Romney doesn’t agree to appear on SNL. Yet the MSM ignores images of GWB, who, while out of office, continues to host events for war vets and the like.

http://ymarsakar.wordpress.com Ymarsakar

It’s a paid for propaganda network. And it’s not even paid by the politicians sucking up money through campaign financing.

http://bookwormroom.com Bookworm

Marica: Oh, my goodness! I’d forgotten about Springer. He pretty much answers the question about just how unseemly this is.

Heather: Welcome to the “old heads on young shoulders” club. I am a charter member.

MacG: You’re right. There’s nothing like taking time off from a meaningless job (although one that costs the California taxpayers well over $100,000 per year), and taking a second job at an already obsolete TV station. I wonder if he’ll take his CurrentTV salary and pay it back to the state. Oh, gosh! I really crack myself up sometimes.

Charles Martel and jj: Yes, that about sums it up. From one precious enclave to another without any intermediary stops — and certainly without any stops that involve the citizens who pay his salary.

Old Buckeye: I think decorum has become an old-fashioned concept, one that died during the George Bush era. George and Laura practiced decorum, of course, but I think it’s official death knell was Janet Jackson’s Super Bowl costume malfunction.

Ymarsakar: You’re right about it’s being a propaganda network, so I guess that makes it even more wonderful that no one watches it.

http://ymarsakar.wordpress.com Ymarsakar

Much of the Left’s propaganda isn’t designed to win converts, but to enforce discipline amongst the masses. If you don’t enforce discipline in a totalitarian camp or cult, you tend to get “runaways”. Those are bad for the reputation of the cult. As it tends to foment disruption amongst the circle dance. That is why often if discipline cannot be enforced, the Left ejects and excommunicates members. This is what people don’t quite understand because they never worked with totalitarian thugs or propagandists.

Propaganda can be used for many many things. Half of which, people have no idea about.

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